2025 Tampa Supercross Photo Gallery

2025 Tampa Supercross Recap

What in the wide, wide world of sports is going on?

Probably no one had on their bingo card for the weekend an implosion by the Kansas City Chiefs leading to a blowout Philadelphia Eagles win in Super Bowl 59 and Malcolm Stewart taking the checkers for his first 450 class Supercross victory.

Round 5 of the 2025 Monster Energy Supercross season on Saturday at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL showed why so many belove (and sometimes hate) this niche sport that proved far more exciting than "the big game."

The brownie batter sure looked nice but this track posed some challenges which may or may not have led to some get-offs and injuries. In the 450 class, Chase Sexton dominated from the start grabbing the Holeshot and slinging to the lead. Justin Cooper followed with Jason Anderson behind him. Those two swapped spots after a minute, then Ken Roczen passed Cooper for third less than a minute later. Three minutes after that Roczen was in second and trying to catch Sexton.

Behind them, Stewart was making gains. In third after five minutes, Stewart used the whoops to his advantage and got into second around the 12 minute mark closing in on Sexton, who seemingly had the race in hand. All the while, Cooper Webb was fast approaching, passing Anderson for fourth after six minutes then Roczen for third near midway through the event.

Shortly after, Roczen collided with Jeremy Hand in the air taking both out with Roczen near windmilling off the track. Tristan Lane got taken out too. That was the end of the night for Roczen as his chain bunched up on the front sprocket after derailing and he couldn't get restarted. A blow to the veteran who was just two points from the lead entering the round. He finished 21st falling to 4th in the standings, 18 points out from first-place.

Up front, Stewart continued a torrid pace trying to catch Sexton and making it a race. With just under three minutes left, Sexton went down at the end of the whoops narrowly taking out Stewart in the process but the veteran and fan favorite slipped by seamlessly and an open track greeted him.

"To do this in my home crowd is a dream come true. I've been waiting for this moment for, like, 15 seasons doing this," said Stewart, brother of the famed and former fastest man on the planet James Stewart. "For a split second I was like I don't know if I can do this but you know what, this 32 year old boy got it done here in Tampa at my home town, baby!"

The 2016 250SX East Champion hasn't stepped on the podium since 2022 and needed 108 premier class starts to get his first victory but the exuberance was palpable. The win helps Stewart in the Championship standings moving him into sixth overall, three points behind Eli Tomac.

Speaking of, Tomac finished 17th more or less rolling around the track after catching his leg underneath the foot peg on a jump during qualifying resulting in a sprained ankle and bruised my lower leg. He quickly left the track and was in noticeable pain, limping thereafter. It was reminiscent of his Achilles injury two years ago when he was well on his way to victory and securing the 2023 Supercross title before unexpectedly leaving the track, leg lifted off the pedal.

This injury comes a week after frontrunner and defending Champion Jett Lawrence tore his ACL after dabbing his foot to the ground at the start of Race 3 for the Triple Crown at Glendale. His brother Hunter Lawrence crashed out in his Heat race in Tampa and did not line up. At any rate, Tomac salvaged points by gritting through the pain and thanks to Roczen's, Sexton's and Lawrence's results didn't fall too far behind from the leaders.

Sexton held on for fifth and despite the crash and losing the win, he extended his lead in the points standings, thanks to Roczen's crash. Webb pulls into second, five points from the lead.

Gates dropped for the first round of the stacked 250 East class season featuring a plethora of title contenders with Max Anstie emerging victorious after a Red Flag.

Anstie grabbed the Holeshot then quickly overtaken by Pierce Brown who looked ripe for the checkers until he crashed after six minutes and the Red Flag waved with eight minutes left. Brown broke his T5 vertebrae, never lost feeling in his extremities and has already undergone surgery.

Certainly, not the kind of blessing he was looking for.

The crash put Anstie in the lead who then was first off the staggered restart and no one came close to denying him the win thereafter.

"You know that for Round 1, it's definitely a wild race out there with the Red Flag and restart. Pierce went down. I hate to see that, he was riding so well," Anstie said. "After that it kind of took the wind out of my sales. They red flagged it. Me and Dax (Bennick) were up front, honestly I was like, let's not do anything silly right now. The whoops were really tricky. Its Round 1, so you're always a little bit more nervous."

Bennick finished a career-high second (though was docked five points for jumping on the Red Flag) and Cameron Mcadoo, riding with a torn ACL, took third.

Defending Champion Tom Vialle got off to a slow start taking fifth. RJ Hampshire, switching coasts after taking the 2024 250 West title had a run-in with a tuff block and his bike just didn't want to let go! Stupid tuff block! He finished 18th. Levi Kitchen, who switched coasts at the last minute (in hindsight maybe not the best decision), finished 9th.

And good news for oft-injured Austin Forkner returning to racing after a brutal crash last year ended his racing campaign for 2024. Indeed, he crashed, after a run-in with Cullin Park, but he escaped injury and finished 17th.

Supercross resumes Saturday in Detroit at Ford Field.